Dear praxidice,

There are no provisions for political parties in the US Constitution. Those who wrote the Constitution tried to avoid the party system in England. They tried to do do by having the people elect notable unbiased electors who would elect a president by making the president the person with the most electoral votes. The vice-president would be the person with the next-most electoral votes.

They wound up with a president and vice-president at odds as different factions coalesced around different men. The factions became political parties. I'm afraid the political party is something we are going to have to live with. We can improve the situation by making every vote a conscience vote except for those issues specifically mentioned in the party platform on which the candidates run. We can also finance elections by government funding eliminating corporate, union or individual contributions. We can eliminate political advertising and require candidates to confront each other in open debate. We can ban lawyers only retaining them as technicians to make sure that legislation is in proper format. Whatever we do I think we will have political parties as long as we have democracy.

I think if Peter Slipper becomes a member of Clive Palmer's party all chances for a new start will go out the window.
I have no doubt that the people who support Palmer will walk away if he takes in that bloke.

I agree. The man is a grandious poser. Palmer will lose votes hand over fist.

Same here, my impression is that Slippery Pete is a particular nasty piece of work and something one would have no qualms about stepping on if encountered when out and about. The only possible reason I can comprehend for accepting the clown into the UAP is that his presence gives the UAP the numbers needed to be officially recognized as a political party. Whether or not the pros outweigh the cons is another issue.

A bit o' good news this morning, Slipper's been given the slip. Amazing how damaging only a few hours of news can be. I hope that the UAP is not letting in any of the proven failures of the left turned deserters into it's ranks. The UAP would be well advised to pick it's candidates with extreme discretion as to their past. Get fresh blood which has an unblemished record & a good record in anything except Law.
Ex lawyers is what brought this great Nation to it's knees.

Ex lawyers is what brought this great Nation to it's knees.

HEAR HEAR !!

As far as I'm aware, Big Clive doesn't have any other failed leeches in the UAP, hopefully they'll be persona-non-grata indefinitely. As I Understand from various media sources, the Slipper Pete thing was supposedly to get the UAP to 'official' party status, mind you if thats what the mainstream media said its almost certainly a distortion.